The weather is starting to turn and brings Kings’ tides and fortunes along for the ride.

There is only one word on everyone’s mind and this time it’s not an order to the maid: Sweep.

Sweep the Vancouver Canucks off our ice.

Sweep the Sedins back to Sweden for the summer.

Sweep Ryan Kesler’s feet out from under him, not that he needs any help.

Sweep the Western Conference’s sole Canadian playoff team out of the post season and into history’s books as another President’s Trophy wasted. Another 1st seed toppled. Another boon to the adage, “anything can happen in the playoffs.”

Of course, nothing in this life is easy and though we won the pivotal game 3, game 4 shall prove to be the Kings’ toughest challenge thus far. The Canucks may very well play Daniel Sedin. With or without the missing half of their misbegotten zygote, they will play as they are, animals wounded, backed into a corner. A goat on the ledge, avoiding his lascivious shepherd. They will scratch, claw and bite. We shall make them whimper, whine and sulk. Those tails growing out their hinds, the ones over which they dramatically trip every time a King feigns to hit them can finally be put to good use; cradled firmly between their legs as they walk down the line, shaking hands they’d rather not shake, accepting a fate fully earned.

But we cannot collect $200 until we pass GO.

The Kings need to play above the level that won them games 2 and 3. If their best is yet to come, they are due for a dose. Anze Kopitar has offense left to add to his behemoth defense. Jeff Carter may have a bum ankle, but there is nothing wrong with his wrists. Brad Richardson returns to us and that sneaking feeling inside tells me it will be not with a whisper, but a bang.

The game to contain has brought us this far, but all that contains cries out to be unleashed.

This team has proven to me it has what it takes both skillfully and mentally to win important games. Tonight is the night to prove they also possess killer instinct. The taste of blood lies just beyond the tongue.

And now, we pray.

In the name of the Captain, the Son of Philly and the Holy Goalie.
Amen.

Bless us Oh Hockey Gods, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through LA Kings, Our Team. Amen.

Blessed are You, Kings our Team and Team of our fathers, Team of Dionne, Team of Luc and Team of Gretzky, the great, mighty and awesome Team, exalted Team, who bestows bountiful goals, who creates all wins, who remembers the insanity of the fans, and who, in love, brings a redeemer to their fans’s children, for the sake of Our Kings.

Our Kings, who art on home ice
Hallowed be thy game.
Thy kingdom come, thy wills be done
On our ice as it was on theirs.
Give us this day our daily goals, and forgive no Canuck their transgressions,
As we pound into submission those who trespass against us.
And lead us past the first round,
Past these evil Canuck fucks.
Amen.

Hail Kopi, full of grace, the fans are with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst players and blessed are the fruit of thy skills, goals.
Holy Kopi, dominant of centers, play for us sinners,
Now until the hour of our Cup.
A-fucking-men.

The game tonight will have two super components: The mental side and physical side.

Physically, the Kings have been very tough and bending and not breaking at key times, with great opportunistic plays, such as short handed goals, odd man rushes, Kopi’s steal and Brown being there to finish plays.

Mentally, that is the big challenge, where the Kings should just continue on with all of the great hockey that they put together since the Carter trade.

For the Cansucks, they are the ones that have the mental mountain to climb, along with the physical stamina to get up that mountain fast. They can talk all they want, but, once on the ice, will they be out of synch, missing passes, plays disintegrate, killing soft goals allowed, bad penalties at the wrong time and place, and on and on.

I can see it now.. burrows throwing a bitch fit, dirty shots to throw us off our game, diving like chicken shits….gotta stay focused and NOT give in to their scandalous and sneaky moves..they will try to mind fuck us but I have faith our boys will take it with a grain of salt and get back at them with goals goals and more goals! Can’t afford to give them ANY power plays or room to even get in our heads. Get in deep, go in for the kill. Physically the kings can handle it, i have full faith, I just hope they keep composed mentally, handle rebounds like pros, tire the shit out of vancouver and sweep their asses off the ice and back to their log cabins in canada.

I would also expect, in light of huge criticism of officiating in this first round, refs calling everything under the sun. Refs always come under scrutiny this time of year but a lot bad press in the last week between no call on torres,clowes creative poke check, brier’s post season opener etc. A lot of attention is getting drawn to the zebras and I would expect to see more diligence tonight on their part.

We are the better team right now and if we play our style tonite we should come out victorious and send these over hyped, diving losers back to Canada with their tails between their legs! I imagine the kings are pumped and can’t wait to finish this. As fans we have all been waiting for this night for decades so let’s seize the opportunity and go fucking nuts! Go Kings!

Precision playing…be the better team…which hell you are!!!!!
I expect to hear the noise from Staples…..and maybe it would be nice if the Kings got more than a -2 second mention on any of our local news stations.
GO KINGS GO GO KINGS GO GO KINGS GO GO KINGS GO GO KINGS GO
So feeling the hockey Gods are finally looking down at us and smiling!

My final today at 3 is just going to kill me. I’m supposed to take a test on price discrimination, the economics of monopolies and oligopolies, explore game theory and discover the Nash Equilibrium.
WHAT THE FUCK! I just wanna fucking watch the fucking kings. Don’t my dumb-ass professors know that?
Oh well, in a few short hours the Kings shall descend upon me and it shall be great (I still need to talk to my sister about getting the free tickets from Toyota. She said to ask whenever I wanted but I figured asking every game would have been too much).

“Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks, for example, has been seen somersaulting at center ice in an attempt to draw a call against Mike Richards of the Los Angeles Kings, and later acted like the end boards were slicked with bacon grease in an attempt to draw a call during a game in LA.”

That is a tough choice, since, obviously, we have a few that can shine and star tonight.

I will go with the following bright star Doughty, who has the sun shining on him.

That look is priceless, where he had his moment a few nights ago where everybody is scrumming around the net, and he walks away, saying, this is not for me, I am better than that right now. He is saying, I am a winner now and I will do my part to win for the team.

I surprisingly calm going into this game. I am sure once the game starts I’ll be kicking things, and telling the cats to get away, but at the moment, I feel good. We’ll see what happens soon enough, and it better not be any Raffi Torres crap Vancouver!!!

about a year ago, when that pretentious sharks beat writer wrote how “quiet staples center is” and how “docile their fans were,” we kicked it up a notch. it got loud. but the intensity in game 3 was insane, although i don’t think many people were expecting the grind-it-out style game we’re used to playing as a team, the fans still managed to crank it up. it can’t, for one moment, be silent out there. this is a soccer reference, but we need to be the 12th man and cheer our boys to what hopefully will be history in the making. i’m anxious, i’m excited. i CANNOT wait for the puck to drop!

Being the home team, why the hell do we have to listen to a canadian biased announcing team? That puck was open and playable but the mother fucking announcers called it a good stoppage. Are they fucking blind or just bias?

The game strategy didn’t work, where the Cansucks were desperate and hard charging in all phases in the game. Fraser did a dumb easy penalty, in open ice, for leg on leg, which turned momentum around more.

Can’t cry over should have been, could have been stuff, as Kings had chances, i.e., penalty shot and some good shots that were saved.

Pressure is still on the Cansucks to pull off miracles, and Kings really have no problem with going back to play for a win in the next game.
GO KINGS GO

One quick rant:
1. Frasier, you asshole. All the good things you do are negated when you took that retarded penalty in the second that essentially changed the game.
2. Can Carter and Williams contribute anything offensively?
3. Where the fuck was our physical game? First 3 we were rocking them..tonight they didn’t break an egg. Especially on the twins. Did we even touch them?
4. Fuck the ref on the kings goal that he blew early.
5. Hockey gods just weren’t with us tonight. Period.
6. Brown’s penalty shot… That was the last chance. Could’ve been 2-2. Instead they score immediately on the pp=3-1.
Regroup and set for Sunday. That’s it…now I’m going to drink!

Pretty much this ^^ across the board. I’ll add…
1. Richards’ turnover turned into his deflection goal, so hockey gods are only partially at fault here. Hockey gods also fucked the Canucks out of a couple chances.
2. Physical game did suck, they didn’t turn it up until the last 5 minutes of the game.
3. Carter really needs to step up, but Williams has been beast but was quieter this game.
4. Quick let in a softie, but he also had a ton of godly saves.
5. The PP generally had some good intensity and movement, but they just couldn’t finish and they needed to move the puck faster.
6. Nolan’s penalty was bullshit.
7. Refs missed the Sedin elbow on Brown (obviously) and a crosscheck on Richards in front of the Van net.
8. The breakouts were generally lazy or forced.
9. I’m noticing the Kings need to do a better job about moving the puck along the boards in the defensive zone. They’re taking far too long with it.

The Kings came out flat, got a good goal, committed bad penalties, played PUSSY defense, didn’t score when they should’ve, played terrible on special teams (fuck you Kompon!!!) and didn’t score when they should’ve!!
Ya, that’s pretty much a throw away game.
Go back to what you did the first three games you fucking idiots!!
Play good defense, clear the front of the net, go to the net at the other end: Brown, Williams, Carter, Penner, etc. ,work together on the penalty kill and give Quick a clear view of the puck.
The Sedin Twins are pussies and you acted like they’re untouchable.
Don’t look for the referees for help they fucking SUCK dick!!!!!
Oh, P.S.- Scuderi is still killing us on the ice!!

Canucks were forechecking heavy duty (again) and the Kings were not recognizing and adjusting to stop it.
Kings were fumbling and not clearing—I hate those no look passes that goes right to the opponent’s stick and bam, Kings getting hammered constantly.
No King’s forecheck for 55 minutes of the game.
Worrisome–need for Carter and Richards and Williams to step up now to win a game by “FINISHING”!
Quick cannot always do it alone, and he was pressured way too much.
Kings were watching and waiting too much to see if Cansucks would meltdown and choke and give a freebie to the Kings, and Kings guessed wrong.
Cansucks winning puck control battles and getting good shots as a result.
Sadly, the Canucks were beatable and ripe for errors and losing, but, Kings just did not force the issue and take command with a crowd begging for a win.
Still, things could be a lot worse for the Kings in this underdog role situation, and they are close, but no cigar yet.
Sutter needs to get the team ready to really play King’s total frustration and opportunistic hockey, with some clutch plays from the big guns that have been silenced.

And let’s not forget mike Richards. After game 1 kings fans were singing his praises (deservedly so), “this is why we traded for Richards”, “this is why we gave up schenn and simmons”, “mike richards steps up come playoff time”….
Certainly Van made adjustments for Richards after he dominated game 1. That provided Kopi and Brown with space and they picked their game up. But, where has Richards been since game 1? Don’t mention, “he’s been great defensively”. Please. He wad brought in to take us over the edge from hopefuls to contenders…we need more than 1 game of greatness.

Let this be a lesson to ya! We are Kings fans! We don’t expect good things without hard work! Never is anything to be easy for the Kings, nor us fans! I hope tonight put things into perspective for all of you. We, as fans will win with our team, being what it is, not what we want it to be. Unfortunately, our team is not a big game team. Yet, all the same, now that this game is over, they will surely punish the Canucks at home. I kind of prefer it this way. Let those bastards burn their town down when the Kings destroy them in game 5! Go Kings, Go!!! … By the way, I don’t know what game you were watching, but on TV, I saw Mike Richards prevent two goals. Just saying …

Mark, I was watching the same game as you I suppose. I didn’t say Richards played poorly and I noticed some great defensive work too; however, I said i want more than 1 game of greatness.
In game 1 Richards pulled a Messier, he was determined to impose his will on that game and no one was going to stop him. Making plays, chirping and hitting Vans impact players (which was effective at getting them off their games), hustling, and yes, providing defense. He actually had that Messier look in his eyes. We haven’t seen the “eye of the tiger” look from him, for a full 60, since.
Van adjusted to negate Richards impact…but doesn’t that happen to all elite players?

One writer (one man’s opinion) today at SB Nation, said this about Richards and the PP:

“Los Angeles’ power play is also in need of a few adjustments, most notably a quiet sit down with Mike Richards. In what was already a down season for the former Flyer, the same scenario continues to repeat: Richards moves behind or to the side of the net as part of the cycle, receives the puck, shifts to the left side of the net, and fires into the goaltender’s legs or chest.

It’s a strategy that may have been more effective in the Eastern Conference against goalies like Craig Anderson or Tim Thomas with a tendency to move and open up seams, but against the more anchored styles he’s now facing, it has only cost opportunities, and explains why Richards is down to just three PP goals this season compared to his normal nine or ten.”

Horrible refs. Plenty of Vancouver penalties that were not called. Kings scrambling around like blind mice looking for cheese. Definitely NOT the physical game we’ve been seeing so far…it’s cool though, they’ll take it next game. If not.. game 6 it is.. LA will be going nuts..regardless…we’ve got this series, unless they continue with the bs giveaway style game they played last night.

side note… anyone notice the gvancouver goons in front of staples going nuts after the game…i was dying of laughter, they were going crazy as if it was the series they won…rofl..ooOoooOooo…one game..wooow….lets go ape shit…idiots.